Selma Movie

Sarah Gonzales Triplett and I went to see Selma on Friday. It's a brilliant piece of cinematography, but as a work of history, particularly as a portrayal of the relationship between Dr. King and President Johnson, it leaves much to be desired. Elizabeth Drew's piece in the New York Review of Books does a good job of addressing the issue:

"The faux tension has obviously been inserted into the movie in order to make it more 'dramatic' and add 'buzz,' but in doing so, the makers of Selma have taken prohibitive liberties with the truth. So much of Selma is fine and true and important—especially when it comes to the famous marches in 1965—that there need not have been gratuitous exploitation of a major set of events in our history, or deliberately misleading the public."

I'd still highly recommend the film.

Read Drew's review, from January 8th, 2015, here.